President Trump is in Poland and gave a speech to a large crowd cheering “U! S! A! – U! S! A!” and “Dah! nald! Trump! – Dah! nald! Trump!” Video here, summary/reviews here and here.
It sounds fairly epic:
President Donald J. Trump has said the West faces an existential challenge to “defend our civilisation”, “borders”, and “faith”…
“We must work together to confront forces that threaten over time to undermine our values and erase the bonds of culture, faith, and tradition”, he said…
“Because as the Polish experience reminds us – the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail. The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive?
“Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the courage to preserve our civilisation in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?” he questioned.
He praised the Warsaw Uprising of World War II. As is customary, he skipped over the bad role played by Polish collaborators in aiding the Holocaust.
Trump will continue on to a G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany. As the Business Insider article puts it:
Trump…urged western NATO allies in Europe to spend more on defense, drawing a comparison with Poland which meets the agreed target of two percent of annual economic output.
Later on Thursday, Trump was slated to condemn “the steady creep of government bureaucracy” and praise the sovereignty of nations in a speech at a Warsaw square, according to excerpts released by the White House.
“The West became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies,” he will say, according to the White House.
Nice 🙂
As to the other side of the world: Trump Plans “Pretty Severe Things” In Retaliation Against North Korea
“I have some pretty severe things we’re thinking about,” Trump said at a news conference in Warsaw. “Doesn’t mean we’re going to do them. I don’t draw red lines.”
“I think we will just take a look at what happens over the coming weeks and months with respect to North Korea,” Mr. Trump added. “It’s a shame they’re behaving this way and they’re behaving in a very dangerous manner, and something will have to be done about it.”
I don’t see how North Korea can ever be solved without China’s active participation. And at this point, China is not even giving permission. If we take on North Korea without China, we will end up in a war with China. I trust that Trump knows it.
UPDATE: Added a bit of emphasis in the Poland speech, and here are more quotes from it. Trump on the importance of families:
We can have the largest economies and the most lethal weapons anywhere on Earth, but if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive.
Trump defending Western civilization:
Americans, Poles, and the nations of Europe value individual freedom…
… if we don’t forget who are [as a civilization], we just can’t be beaten…
We reward brilliance. We strive for excellence, and cherish inspiring works of art that honor God.
We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression.
We empower women as pillars of our society and of our success. We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives. And we debate everything. We challenge everything. We seek to know everything so that we can better know ourselves.
And above all, we value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person, and share the hope of every soul to live in freedom.
That is who we are.
The more I learn about this speech, the more I see to like in it. Remember (or as I’ve blogged before), I am a Western supremacist.
Plus, today’s history lesson: In 1683, it looked like the Muslims (Ottoman Turks) would conquer Vienna and roll over Europe. The Pope called on all of Christian Europe to prevent it, and the Poles responded (among others). They prevailed.
It’s an example of Christianity’s – and Poland’s – importance to the West. If it hadn’t happened, America’s West-hating and Christianity-hating Left wouldn’t even be around today, to do their sneering/hating things.
My guess is that China will just look the other way in a NK and USA conflict.
The “Korean War” ended 60 years ago and I think we’ve all moved on.
I think everyone is done with NK being a closed society ruled by one man.
I also think China has been ready for regime change anyway,before Kim’s brother was assassinated.
Thank you, I had heard that President Trump had managed to insert a dig at the obama but couldn’t find what it was. The red lines thing. Maybe he can insert something about Nazi collaborators in France during his Bastille day visit, instead of glossing over it. Macron needs to be reminded that a modern day Bonaparte still sits off camera in today’s world. He’s fooled France & our US Liberals. But that’s about it. I Would Be Interested to know if the Polish First Lady intended a slight at Pres Trump today when she bypassed him while he had his hand out to shake & she went for Melania instead. One does need to remember that the French are the French & that the Polish have always been derided. Not everything is an attack on President Trump. Good times.
Great article for the gay community
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2017/07/gay-pride-month-2017-was-overkill.html?m=1
@1: Actually, the Korean War was never over. I think there’s an armistice agreement that led to a ceasefire.
Seems to me that NKorea is a problem without a solution we can provide.
We owe too much money and are too dependent on China to lean on them effectively and we don’t have much leverage with Russia either. I suspect that in an economic war, we’d “win” over the Chinese given their structural problems but we’d pay an enormous price.
Looking in from the outside, my guess is that we make the Norks, Chinese, etc. aware that an attack on our territory will result in the “full retaliatory response” JFK talked about. Other than that, I say it’s time to let SKorea defend itself. SKorea is a rich nation and should be able to handle itself against the basket case that is NKorea.
The Chinese are not our friends and never have been. If things go pear-shaped on the Korean peninsula, China has a lot more to lose than we do. Perhaps we should mention that to them.
If Japan and SKorea want to nuke up, who are we to stand in their way?
Interesting – so, if China won’t help, then we make sure that South Korea and Japan (and Taiwan, cough) feel well-armed and supported? That could work. The prospect might even bring China around?
If you liked 600,000 Syrian and Afghan refugees swarming Mittel-Europe, you’ll enjoy even more 6-million starving North Koreans fleeing into China.
The NK dictatorship is extraordinarily brash for a country that is choked for resources. They have held their own people ransom. Now they are trying to build an arsenal that will continue to force the world to enable their hideous abuses.
China, of course, is openly supplying Korea as a client partner. President Xi has permitted a 40% increase in exports to North Korea.
It is unlikely that China is going to cooperate any more than Putin is going to pull out of the Mid-East.
Actually attacking North Korea means that South Korea is going down.
A possible solution of the North Korea conundrum involves giving nukes to Japan and South Korea in order to create an Armageddon price for further North Korean irrationality. There is no evidence that either Japan or South Korea is willing to take on the job of a Mexican standoff, so it comes back to both countries actively cooperating in letting the US station nukes on their soil.
If North Korea wants an arms race, perhaps they deserve one. One outcome of such an arms build-up is that it may cause China to upend the regime in North Korea and cool it down and run it themselves. They really don’t want US nukes in South Korea and Japan.
I’m no geopolitical expert but my intuition is close to yours, ILC.
I do think president DJT is just doing “his best” to keep walking on eggs.
As infuriating, as inhumanely insulting towards mankind in a 21st century, and as tempting it is to just give a memorable, historical spanking to the freaking psychopathic Kid of Evil who rule in NK … president DJT knows
— and unlike his commie-goat-loving King Obamax the Utter Fraud of Convenient Color predecessor (as the latter’s recklessly arrogant 2014 venture in Ukraine taught us) —
yes he *does* know that risking to start a war with any of the biggest other fellas in town (ie, Russia or China) is nothing anywhere close to a good idea — for anyone with two working neurons and a gram of decency before their people.
And as much as most Chinese immigrant across the globe count among, by large, as the easiest, most integrated people to deal with, I am sorry, but, just as well, at home, in their native country, it is still largely a business run by psychos.
Let us not forget that although the Chinese government had already started to allow their economy for some global trade with the west even before the 80s, they were still *in full support* of Pol Pot’s gang of butchers in Cambodia even years after the political fall of the same champion who managed to slaughterer 25% of his own people in just a 5 years timespan (1976-81) … after studying/learning cozy in salons and cafes with our genius “postmodernist” French intellectuals(*) (Stalin crime deniers) the late 60s in Paris, of course.
(*) just, true leninists wearing a new mask, of course
Two years ago, I was walking in San Francisco city and I crossed in the middle of a busy pedestrian (merchant) street a couple of old chinese ladies standing immobile, wearing large hats and heavy clothes under a harsh summer sun, and carrying signs reading things along the lines of, “Communism aims towards world enslavement”.
Your average american by passers and hordes of tourists were just condescendingly raising eyebrows, smiling, and shaking their heads as if it was the silliest show someone would make.
I had never wished before to slap so many faces in the same 10 minutes after witnessing that sort of reaction. I approached and tried to exchange words of (my moral support) with one of the ladies — she gently, politely pushed me away with her free hand, mumbling, I think, “Please, no, they can watch us from home”.
She didn’t want to risk losing her big hat cover.
Enormous pressure could be put on China with an old Irish practice: The Boycott.
President Trump would need to lay it out to the American People. China is not helping us with this madman in PyongYang. So we need to put pressure on China. We can do this without abrogating any trade agreements. Americans simply need to look at the label on a product in any store, whether at Hobby Lobby or Designer Shoe Warehouse. If it’s made in China, put it back on the shelf. If everybody does this, they WILL get the message.
The rock & a hard place exists now for the US but it’s on a delayed timer. It’ll take several more years to miniaturize a warhead to place on a rocket. So, while there is a bad situation now it’s not a crisis. But stationing nukes in Japan & putting them back on SKorea isn’t really viable. The scenario is, there’s a demand that NK give up its nuclear program or be annihilated. That’s it. Limited options & no more appeasement cash. A war in Pres Trump’s first term would be disastrous so there’s not going to be a surprise strike on Pyongyang. We don’t want a war in Pres Trump’s second term either because we do need to have another Republican in the White House in 8 years. It’s not entirely a cold calculation unless you don’t want to thank George W. for making sure Obama won. No one is going to care that no ground invasion would be needed. It’s an automatic bad deal for the Republicans. Pointing out to the US’s great unwashed that we can’t have NK subs with nuclear missiles patrolling off the coasts is a non-starter.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the insightful comments on China and North Korea.
FYI, I’ve expanded the post to add more about Poland, and Trump’s speech there. Like I said, “The more I learn about this speech, the more I see to like in it.”
How Trump thinks is sooooooooooooooooooo the opposite (in a good way) of how Obama or Hillary thinks.
I have a better idea:
DJT to pinch his disgusted nostrils hard enough to be able to handle the smell at the U.N., and ask a lil help from Putin to somehow force China to take as political refugees:
Rosie O’Donnell, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Madonna, Ashley Judd…
I guarantee you.
The Chinese will be *begging* to help America give his memorable and well-deserved spanking to the Only Fat Kid in NK —
— whose haircut alone is already a crime against humanity in and of itself (well, per my own CNN-compliant process in artistic taste gauging, anyway).
If you enjoyed DJT’s speech in defense of western civilization, you may enjoy also this little treat of a travel back in time:
Peter Thiel… Why Multiculturalism is a Myth
https://youtu.be/E6cxRYgqfHY
… in…
… April 1996.
A good first-start would be with those arch-traitors; Wal*Mart.
Do they sell anything NOT ‘Made in China’?
Maybe once every year or two I go to Wal*Mart for something no-one else has, and come outside swearing “…I’m no setting foot in one again”. The soulless interior design, the crappy merchandise, the loathsome shoppers, and the bland Stepford employees just grate.
**shudder** …**gag**
@ 13, Cyril, not even North Korea would take those Hollywood/celebrity hypocrites
What a difference 100 years makes.
In 1782, Emperor Joseph II of Vienna commissioned 25 year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to compose The Abduction from the Seraglio” which is an opera of emotional depth with complex characters, including Osmin, the Turkish emir.
Near fifty years (1636-7) before the “gates of Vienna” event (1683) many European economies were wracked by the collapse in futures prices of tulip bulbs. It is believed that Ogier de Busbecq, the ambassador of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor to the Sultan of Turkey, sent the first tulip bulbs and seeds to Vienna in 1554 from the Ottoman Empire.
I mention these two events to illustrate how seemingly disparate developments can influence and occur on the cultural level while events on the political level are so vastly different. I would liken it to the Way-Mart and Amazon effect on retail businesses and their dependency of the cheap production provided in the “global economy” and China in particular.
I Love Capitalism is far more capable of fleshing out this concept than am I. My point is that historic events only become two dimensional (them vs. us) in times of confrontational conflict. Once the immediate storm has passed, we return to lazy acceptance. Now radical Islamists have got our “civilization-level” attention again we are not quite sure how to rise to the circumstances that threaten us.
” As is customary, he skipped over the bad role played by Polish collaborators in aiding the Holocaust.” Yes, ILikeCapitalism, and he didn’t say anything about the thousands of Poles who aided the Jews–or the thousands who died for aiding them; after all, helping a Jew in Poland had the punishment of death attached to it, unlike Western Europe.
As for North Korea, it is good that our President has decided to tone down the rhetoric that he has been using with North Korea, and is now starting to sound a bit more like out former President, now that reality seems to be seeping into his public statements.